Part 26 (2/2)
”Jimmy! Call a policeman!” cried Mr. Bates, rising from his chair.
He was too slow. Cameron reached swiftly for his collar, and with one fierce wrench swept Mr. Bates clear over the top of his desk, shook him till his head wobbled dangerously, and flung him cras.h.i.+ng across the desk and upon the prostrate form of the lanky youth sitting behind it.
”Call a policeman! Call a policeman!” shouted Mr. Bates, who was struggling meantime with the lanky youth to regain an upright position.
Cameron, meanwhile, walked quietly to where his coat and cap hung.
”Hold him, somebody! Hold him!” shouted Mr. Bates, hurrying towards him.
Cameron turned fiercely upon him.
”Did you want me, Sir?” he inquired.
Mr. Bates arrested himself with such violence that his feet slid from under him, and once more he came sitting upon the floor.
”Get up!” said Cameron, ”and listen to me!”
Mr. Bates rose, and stood, white and trembling.
”I may not know much about your Canadian ways of business, but I believe I can teach you some old-country manners. You have treated me this morning like the despicable bully that you are. Perhaps you will treat the next old-country man with the decency that is coming to him, even if he has the misfortune to be your clerk.”
With these words Cameron turned upon his heel and walked deliberately towards the door. Immediately Jimmy sprang before him, and, throwing the door wide open, bowed him out as if he were indeed the Prince of Wales. Thus abruptly ended Cameron's connection with the Metropolitan Transportation & Cartage Company. Before the day was done the whole city had heard the tale, which lost nothing in the telling.
Next morning Mr. Denman was surprised to have Cameron walk in upon him.
”Hullo, young man!” shouted the lawyer, ”this is a pretty business!
Upon my soul! Your manner of entry into our commercial life is somewhat forceful! What the deuce do you mean by all this?”
Cameron stood, much abashed. His pa.s.sion was all gone; in the calm light of after-thought his action of yesterday seemed boyish.
”I'm awfully sorry, Mr. Denman,” he replied, ”and I came to apologise to you.”
”To me?” cried Denman. ”Why to me? I expect, if you wish to get a job anywhere in this town, you will need to apologise to the chap you knocked down--what's his name?”
”Mr. Bates, I think his name is, Sir; but, of course, I cannot apologise to him.”
”By Jove!” roared Mr. Denman, ”he ought to have thrown you out of his office! That is what I would have done!”
Cameron glanced up and down Mr. Denman's well-knit figure.
”I don't think so, Sir,” he said, with a smile.
”Why not?” said Mr. Denman, grasping the arms of his office chair.
”Because you would not have insulted a stranger in your office who was trying his best to understand his work. And then, I should not have tried it on you.”
”And why?”
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